Post-processing my photos (import, triage, editing, grouping, staring, (geo-)tagging and export) regularly takes me a very long time on darktable (I would say around 35 hours for 250-300 finale pictures, so after triage), especially the editing part. It was the same rough estimate on previous similar softwares I used before (Lightroom and Aperture).
I like photography but I’m just a long-time hobbyist, not a professional so time is frequently hard to find among other activities and I’m wondering if I’m using this kind of software appropriately or if it’s just normal or due to my personal approach.
That’s why I’m interested in anything that could help me speed up my editing worflow.
Do you have good feedbacks/tips to share?
Do you personally spend less (or more!) time on post-processing your pictures?
Do you edit every single (not rejected) picture you take like me?
Do you spend more time on your best pictures? Or, on the contrary, more time on your (a priori) worst ones to save them or as a challenge?
Some remarks:
I already try to do my best when shooting at first place (so there is less work to do afterwards).
I know there are some batch functions on darktable like profiles and presets. However, I find they don’t apply very nicely when pictures were not taken with the same exact conditions. I try as well to copy/paste some specific adjustments via lighttable when I can and still I’m not always satisfied and I need to micro-adjust them afterwards.
Globally I have the personal impression in my mind that each picture deserves a specific editing that cannot be obtained by batch processing. Am I over-meticulous? Is there a misconception here? A lack of knowledge regarding darktable advanced functionality?
NB: I’m more like a live photo souvenir photographer so pictures can be very different from one to another in the same shooting session. Conditions are not under control like in a studio for example hence my difficulties when applying presets/adjustment copies and so on.
Thanks a lot in advance for your valuable personal experience/feedback
That works out to about 7 minutes per photo, so if you’re actually editing them all, that’s not bad. I haven’t timed it, but I probably spend 5-10 minutes just editing, with most photos. And some take much longer
Being more efficient/brutal when culling is probably the biggest time saver, since that leaves fewer photos to edit.
Same in terms of timing for me. I used to set a 5 minute timer to try to avoid getting into a loop of endless tweaking for each pic and remind me to move on. Being brutal with culling works. I also have a style preset for things like sharpening and contrast. I can always turn the individual modules off if it’s too much for a particular pic.
I have set my lighttable to show the image generated from the raw files; that means, any exposure reduction I used to keep highlights is undone, so I don’t have to do my culling based on JPG previews that are too dark.
I use one of two basic styles, change the exposure, crop/straighten; denoise & sharpen if needed (I have some sharpening in the default styles). That’ 90% of photos (but then I mostly do landscapes and city snaps). For the rest, I also try to keep it minimal (tone equalizer, for example). It still takes more time that I’d want.
The only way I found that allows me to save time is to delete more. But I’m not a photographer, I just snap pics.
I don’t know for the Loupedeck, but with the Xtouch mini the speedup comes from not having to switch modules, so much less hand movements: the rotators work directly on the assigned function, independent of which module is open/active in the gui. Similar for the button switches. Basically, all common functions are within reach.
And while there are many sliders in dt, not all are used for each image.
Depending on what kind of development you do, the gains will vary: “simple” development (exposure, whitebalance,filmic) becomes an order of magnitude faster, if you have to start using tone equaliser or masking, there’s no speedup (for me). Then again, I haven’t pushed the Xtouch to its limits.
Example: I have the first 4 rotators set to exposure, filmic white ref, filmic black ref, contrast, cct. Add one button to activate a base style, and that takes care of all the basic adjustments I do on virtually every image. And many don’t need much more…
But I’m not sure such equipment is worth the investment (in money, and in setup time), if you mostly do complex edits on small series of images.
Mostly as @rvietor said. Direct control of rotation, exposure, contrast, several colorbalancergb function, sigmoid contrast and hue, tone equalizer levels and many more. So - leaving out cropping - basic settings take a few seconds - you don’t have to remember key shortcuts - and i just look at the screen often in fullscreen mode without redirecting view or mouse to the modules.
Thanks. These are interesting comments. I don’t think I’d invest that much money in the loupedeck for what I do and I’m anal enough that the Lightroom oriented labels would drive me nuts. I see there’s an earlier thread on midi controllers on here
I’ve set up stateless key+mouse move keyboard shortcuts for the most important sliders. For instance, to change exposure, I hold E and move my mouse. This speeds up the initial global adjustments tremendously.
In addition, I set up a number of presets for a few default looks, and assigned them to buttons. This gets me to a good starting point very quickly, optionally even from the Lighttable.
Lastly, I have some auto-presets that bring the various cameras I use to a consistent and similar initial render. And a default export-preset for sharpening, so I don’t need to think about that while editing.
The Xtouch mini worked for me out of the box, iirc (under Opensuse Leap). But there are one or two quirks to keep in mind (do not use MC mode, and when switching banks the LEDs aren’t synchronised immediately).
To assign the shortcuts, do read the manual (details are important).
For me, less error prone in use. I find I’m more likely to hit a wrong key combination by accident than use the wrong rotator or button on the Xtouch. Also, a minor issue while assining hot keys is conflicts with OS or other programs. And I assign the controls in workflow order, also less easy with keyboard shortcuts.
But I’m not a photographer, I just snap pics.